Professionalism in Nursing Practice, Essay Example

Professionalism in nursing practice is faced with some challenges that are attributed to the need to abide to ethical obligations of meeting the promises made to clients due to the trust accorded to them by the clients. The professionals vow to do everything in their might to assist the patients including saving their lives. In the course of delivering their services, they also promise not to hurt the client despite the fact that things may go wrong in the course of treatment or medication. The professionals occasionally encounter ‘patient safety issues’ and sentry events such as serious harm and even deaths that are attributed to wrong-site surgery as well as medication errors (Hood, 2013). The ultimate consequences of such mishaps as well as errors are deaths of hospitalized patients. Therefore, the nursing profession is not actually doing the best that is anticipated of them as per the promises made not to harm the patients who dedicate all their trust to the professionals for care. In other cases, failures are also encountered among professionals who fail to offer services within their capabilities which could otherwise assist the patients, and these issues go beyond safety issues and can only be categorized as ‘quality of care’ issues. Therefore, the professionals in healthcare may fail to keep promises not to hurt the patients and also fail to keep the promise of assisting the patients at the same time.

The efforts to address the challenges that are associated with these mishaps and errors are a clear indication of how the promises demonstrate the professionalism of a healthcare provider. Professionalism in this respect is demonstrated by efforts of taking responsibilities of anything that may go wrong and efforts of reducing errors and defects that are associated with health care delivery. Reduction of probability of occurrence of such defects demands that the professionals learn more on enhancing the reliability of healthcare institutions and consequent application of the knowledge learnt (McGlynn, et al., 2003).

It is important to appreciate the fact that, nursing profession has been shaped by many great nurses throughout history. The obligations of these professionals are do the best in their might to shape the future of nursing. Professional organizations are therefore obligated to shape the future of nursing profession. The responsibility for professional nurses as they belong to these organizations involves full engagement and assumption of leadership roles that facilitate redesigning of healthcare so that the needs of patients are comprehensively addressed in future. Adequate preparation to achieve relevance in future calls for adequate preparation through residency training for the nurses and training (McGlynn, et al., 2003). The professionals must be equipped with a sturdy foundation that will facilitate for the enhancement of an efficient nursing workforce with fully trained members. They must also be prepared to work while exploiting their full potentials as guided by their training such that immediate and future patients’ needs can fully be addressed as well as playing a leading role in the advancement of the healthcare system of the nation. Shaping the future of nursing profession requires transformations in the nursing profession to facilitate the achievement of the vision of achieving affordable, accessible, effective as well as responsive healthcare system for all citizens. It is therefore the responsibility of nursing professionals to engage teamwork and a high degree of responsibility so that the future of nursing is designed to effectively meet the needs and aspirations of patients.

References

Hood, L., Dr. (2013). Leddy and Pepper’s Conceptual Bases of Professional Nursing. LWW.

McGlynn, E.A., Asch, S.M., Adams, J., Keesey, J., Hicks, J., DeCristofaro, A. & Kerr, E.A., (2003). “The Quality of Health Care Delivered to Adults in the United States” New England Journal of Medicine. 348:2635–2645.